Procedure
by Dru
Summary: Post Cyberwoman fic, with Jack interrogating Ianto after the bloodshed ends, before Ianto returns in the last scene. WARNING for torture. Remember that torture chair from Sleeper? That gets used on Ianto. Oneshot.


WARNINGS/Authors Note: WARNING for torture. Remember that torture chair from Sleeper? That gets used on Ianto. Wrote this actually a long time ago(like around the beginning of season 2), just got around to whacking quaili into doing her re-writes and finish it up. 

"Ianto. Stop it." Jack demanded, standing over the young man as he hunched over the autopsy table, carefully tending to his dead girlfriend.

Ianto didn't react to Jack's voice, just continued to roboticly clean, scrubbing a stained cloth against the cold, shining metal.

Jack stalked over and physically yanked Ianto away from the cyberman's corpse.

Ianto jerked and blinked dazedly at him, holding the cloth limply in his trembling hands, and Jack fought the urge to shake a reaction out of him.

"Jack." Owen's voice was quiet and tired, while he rooted though a cabinet. "He's in shock, not ignoring you." He dry swallowed a couple pills from a bottle he found.

"I know." Jack growled though gritted teeth, still holding Ianto's arm, not all that gently. Ianto didn't seem to really notice, eyes sliding back to the body. "He... hit his head before." Jack turned and eyed Owen. "Probably as hard as you hit yours. What'd you take?"

"Something for the monster headache I have." Owen leaned against the counter eyes flicking from the corpses to Ianto and back. "What are we gonna do now?"

Jack stared at Ianto. "We're going to follow Torchwood protocols and interrogate him. We have to know if there's anything else dangerous lurking in the basement, waiting to kill us all."

"Won't work." Ianto mumbled quietly, eyes locked on Lisa's body.

Jack gave him a small shake. "What was that?"

Ianto shrugged. "Whatever you have planed. Trained to resist interrogation. Wouldn't want sensitive Torchwood information getting out if I happened to get captured by the enemy, would we?" Ianto let out a small hysterical giggle. "Can't let the enemy in."

Jack's voice was cold. "We'll see about that. Come on." He gave a small pull and started for the stairs out of the autopsy bay.

000

Ianto sat quietly, letting Jack aim the alien device at him, the cloth was still clenched in his fist. Owen leaned against the door frame watching. For some reason he hadn't gone home like Gwen and Tosh had. He was staying to see what was going to happen.

"This is a lie detector. If you're telling the truth it stays green, if you lie, it'll turn red."

Ianto blandly stared into the light. "My name is Captain Jack Harkness. I'm 12 years old. I'm 1000 years old. I'm a pretty, pretty princess. I'm a unicorn. I'm a weevil in a human suit. I'm happily married to the woman I love." The light didn't so much as flicker, and Owen felt his mouth dropping. Ianto sounded completely sincere and he was almost believing every word coming out of Ianto's mouth. Ianto gave a small bitter laugh at the look on Jack's face. "I told you. Training."

Jack rubbed his eyes and swiped at the device turning it off. "Fine. Let's drop this."

"No. We're going by the rules."

Jack shook his head sharply. "If you want to kill your self, go get your gun. You're not going out through suicide by Torchwood.

"You know the next step. The mind probe. Get it." Ianto's voice took an edge.

"You don't get to call the shots!" Jack yelled.

"It's the rules." Ianto answered calmly. "You know as well as anyone. You need to know. I need you to know."

Jack seemed to be considering it. Owen slammed his hand against the door jamb.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Mind probe? You mean that torture device? Why not just get the thumb screws. They're be a lot safer!" He turned on Ianto. "Are you fucking insane? And in your condition? In his condition?" Owen demanded looking from Ianto to Jack and back again.

"It's the only way. None of you will, or should, trust anything I have to say, this is the only way you can know if you're safe of not. You won't be able to ask my after you..."

Owen wasn't sure if Ianto was going to say "killed" or "retconned". Who the hell knew what he was thinking in his state.

Jack stared at Ianto, and spoke to Owen without shifting his gaze. "Owen get the mind probe."

"Jack!"

"GO!"

Owen hissed though his teeth, turning sharply to leave the office.

000

"Are you fucking sure about this?" Owen demanded once again as he took Ianto's vital signs again, running a quick last minute, pre-torture medical, while Ianto buckled the straps over his ankles and one of his wrists.

"Yes, Owen." Ianto told him calmly, as Jack hooked the cable into the back of the cap, and placed it onto Ianto's head. Owen buckled his other wrist to the chair.

"Jack I'm telling you this is a fucking stupid, dangerous idea! It's going to kill him before we even get any information!" Owen snarled angrily while he banged at the key board, eyes flickering over Ianto's vitals.

"It's his decision." Jack said manning the probe controls.

"He's in shock and concussed. He's not in a state to make decisions!"

Jack stared levelly at Owen.

"...Alright he's already injured, his vitals are all over the place, not to mention the fact that he's a fucking _human_. You have _maybe _one question. Anymore then that and I'll be doing four autopsies rather then three."

Jack breathed sharply though his nose. "I got it. Turning probe on...now."

Ianto let out a hoarse, painful scream and Owen winced and tapped faster. "Alright safe!"

Jack's eyes swung from the computer screen to Ianto. "Are you keeping any other secrets the could harm Torchwood, or any of its members?"

Ianto screamed again then gasped out painfully. "Yes!"

"Jack turn it off now, or he's dead!" Owen bellowed.

Jack lept and hit the command shutting it down.

Owen dropped down in front of the chair Ianto was now slumped in, fingers going to his throat, while his eyes were on the computer screen. "Alive for the moment. Ianto? Come on mate, can you look at me?"

Ianto took a deep shuddering breath, eyes managing to flick up to Owen's face. His fingers twitched against the wood.

"That's right. Good. Good" Owen jumped back up and tapped at the keyboard, looking over the monitors. "Vitals are all over the place, but I think he'll live."

Jack pinned Ianto with his eyes. "What else. What else are you hiding."

Ianto was shaking violently. "F-f-failsafes."

"Failsafe_s_?" Jack emphasised the plural.

"I had it set up that if I died-" Ianto's head fell back against the chair, and he took several shaky breaths.

"If you died, what?" Jack prompted.

"Lisa would be euthanized so she wouldn't have to die...slowly. alone. Failsafe 1."

"The other ones." Jack demanded flicking the probe back on.

Ianto screamed and harshly forced out his answer while Owen cursed a blue streak and pounced at his keyboard. "Complete failsafe! Failsafe 2! If Lisa was compromised, the hub would explode! Save...earth!"

"Jack turn that fucking thing off now!" Owen ordered harshly.

Jack flicked it off again. "How long do we have before it goes off?"

Ianto's eyes were glazed while Owen yanked at the straps, to get him free, body jerking limply as Owen tugged. "Won't. She died."

"Then why could it endanger us now?" Jack demanded, hand hovering near the switch.

"HARKNESS!" Owen ripped the cap off Ianto's head, taking a chunk of hair with it. He glared at his captain.

"Explosives." He somehow managed to gather up the energy to give Jack a look that said "duh". "Macguvered... not very ...stable..." Ianto's eyes then rolled back in his head and Owen has a armful of unconscious Welshman.

"Owen?" Jack asked a tinge of worry seeping into his voice.

Owen was lowering the limp body to the floor and examining Ianto. "Unconscious. He's alive, but in bloody awful shape."

Jack nodded sharply. "I'm going to hunt down those explosives. When he wakes up tell him he's on suspension for the next few weeks." Jack turned sharply on his heel and stalked off.

"IF he lives!" Owen yelled after him then went back to looking Ianto over and running a medical scanner over him. After a minute Ianto's eyes opened and he stared woozily up at Owen.

"Hey, lay still for a minute, yeah?"

Ianto seemed to consider his situation. "....ow." he muttered.

"I bet. Know where you are?"

"Hub."

"Alright. More then one word this time, okay. Know what happened?"

"...just finished being questioned because my girlfriend tried to kill us all." Ianto said in a monotone, then tilted his head slightly. "You know your pupils are different sizes?" He asked politely.

Owen sighed and rolled his eyes. "That'd be from the aforementioned girlfriend whacking me over the head, and you're one to talk. Can't even see your pupils. Can you sit up?"

Ianto pushed him self into a sitting position, and promptly flopped back down. He rubbed his face. "Where's Jack?"

"Off having a Easter egg hunt, but with bombs."

Ianto nodded taking a shaky breath.

"Jack said to tell you you're on suspension for a while."

Ianto nodded again, staring into space. "At least until he decides whether to shoot me, or retcon me back to secondary school?"

Owen winced, not sure what to tell him. He skimmed his eyes over him again. For the first time Owen could remember since the day he came into work and there was a strange young man in a suit behind the counter, Ianto looked a total wreck. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up. Do you want to shower here, or go home first? When was the last time you ate anything?"

Ianto shrugged and kept staring at nothing. "I ordered a pizza..." his eyes involuntarily flicked over towards the autopsy bay where the body of the pizza girl now was. "Not sure I could stand up for a shower." A pause ...."I'm a mess,"

Owen sighed and pulled Ianto up, keeping a hand on his arm to make sure he was stable on his feet. "Yeah. Okay home it is. We'll find you something to eat there and plop you in a bath."

Ianto paused and looked at Owen. "Why are you doing this? You hate me. At the best of times maybe polite disgust...almost got you killed"

Owen shrugged and shoved him towards the cog door lightly. "I dunno. I'll blame it on the head injury later, or pesky doctor morality or something. Just move it, before I come to my senses."

Ianto leaned heavily against the doctor. "Thanks" he murmured quietly, eyes drooping.

"No problems. Don't think you're getting the good bubble bath though."

000


End file.
